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Underground > Comic Books >

X-Book Renovations

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Murray Hamhandler

20:06 / 27.10.03

For good or ill, it looks like there are to be some major renovations in the creative teams on the X-books once Morrison leaves. According to this week's Lying In The Gutters:

Salvador Larocca is the new artist New X-Men (oh, wait...it's just regular old X-Men now, isn't it?).

Alan Davis may be joining up w/Claremont to take over Uncanny.

ROB. FUCKING. LIEFELD. is coming back to do X-Force again.

And Rich apparently knows who the new NXM (sorry, sorry: X-Men) writer is, but he's not telling.

So. Reactions, in order:

Eh.

Right on. I'd totally buy this, especially if it means no more Austen.

What?!? I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, since Nicieza came back to write that upcoming Cable/Deadpool series (complete w/Liefeld covers!).

And goddamnit, I want to know already. Maybe Claremont's dropping Xtreme and taking over both core X-titles. That could be interesting, I suppose.

Comments?

21:52 / 27.10.03

Igor kordery- from what he posted on his board- seems to think that Claremont and Davis will be doing a book together but he claims it won't be Uncanny.

So sounds like either Davis is replacing Kordey on X-Treme or Claremonts getting another book.

22:20 / 27.10.03

oh, god, whomever as long as Austen is gone, he might have some good ideas but as a writer he really sucks. I suppose the ideal would be Claremont as a general "thinker" of the three tittles, and other people as writers. Claremont seems to have lost it as a plotter.

How can Liefield return to x force if there's no x force anymore?

Murray Hamhandler

22:34 / 27.10.03

Well, they're going to bring it back, of course! Just for Rob! Marvel's going to do the 90's right this time! Higher print runs! More die-cut holographix covers! It'll be radd!

What makes Marvel think this is a good idea? Seriously, guys.

So but anyway: Austen may not be gone after all. We must prepare ourselves for this eventuality.

Matthew Fluxington

22:36 / 27.10.03

That Liefeld X-Force comic is going to bomb so hard. Liefeld is the comics equivalent of box office poison these days. He's the fucking Kevin Costner of comics!

It would be a major relief if Chuck Austen has been removed from the X-Men comics, but they may just be switching him to X-Treme and putting Claremont back in his Uncanny slot.

Either way, it seems like they are may be doing their best to reestablish Uncanny as the flagship X-title.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

22:43 / 27.10.03

Austen's being shipped off to do Avengers, I think.

This all sounds like good news to me. The new X-Force should be goofy fun, at least.

Haus of Mystery

22:46 / 27.10.03

It all sounds appalling. Won't be bothering.

02:50 / 28.10.03

Of course not.

And if y'd read any previous Alan Davis X-Men, believe me, it'd serve as a warning.

I neither know nor care of Austen.

08:45 / 28.10.03

I agree it sounds appalling.
I expect this is an elaborate hoax, if not then its my perfect reason to avoid the X-books once again. I win either way.

11:35 / 28.10.03

i love the fact that Liefield is not only writing and drawing the new X-Force, but he's got full editorial control, too. wow, is that ever a bad idea...

12:15 / 28.10.03

Going back to Rich's New-Xmen writer comments, did you notice that THREE times in the article, he used the word "GAH". Sure, it's an expression of impatience or frustration, but could it perhaps stand for something.........initials perhaps?

Or maybe the "A" is "and"?

Petar

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:18 / 28.10.03

So presumrably X-Statix will go back to being X-Force and issue one will have Cannonball wake up and go "Ugh, I had this horrible dream that we'd been replaced by a load of media darlings and everyone was saying the artwork was shit because they were old school X-Fans who didn't like Allred!" and then Cable will lean over and say "it's all right, Daddy's back and he'll make it all better" and then the baddy will be a woman who has two thin strips of fabric over her chest who has the power to distort perspective so that everyone always looks as if they're posing for a picture in such a way as to make their limbs all out of perspective...

It'll be great. really.

Will any of the cool people that Joe Quesada used to get his job still be around in six months? It seems they're all jumping ship on him.

But I was always ever only on board for Morrison, so the next issue of X-Men can involve pictures of the entire team jerking into Xorn's helmet a la a Derek Jarman film for all I care.

14:39 / 28.10.03

This sucks. As Rich himself said in a recent column (with the announcement of Scott Lobdell writing a new ALPHA FLIGHT series upcoming) -- "It's like Bob Harras never left!!!"

Who at NuMarvel thinks that re-hiring Scott Lobdell (who pretty much sucks - he's only slightly better than Austen, though that's not saying much) and Rob Fucking Liefeld is a good idea? What happened to only working with really brilliant, A-list talent?!?!?

But hopefully this mysterious NXM writer will the one shining jewel in the otherwise lackluster X-Crown. Though Davis' art will be pretty - I can't stomach Claremont's work of the past 10 years.

Matthew Fluxington

14:55 / 28.10.03

Oh come on. Lobdell can suck, but he has his moments. A good chunk of the second half of his X-Men run was pretty entertaining. He's nowhere near as awful as Chuck Austen. Be realistic about this.

I can't understand why anyone would get upset about Liefeld doing an X-Force comic. It's not as though it will have anything to do with X-Statix, and it's probably going to be an enormous failure like everything else the guy has done in the past 14 years. He'll get two issues done, and they'll bring in a new writer and artist, and that'll be that.

Please do remember that to a lot of people, Scott Lobdell and Rob Liefeld are A-list talent. Lobdell was the writer on the X-Men during one of the titles commercial peaks, and Liefeld is for better or worse a major figure in the past few decades of comics.

I can't understand getting upset about Alpha Flight and X-Force - they are just spin-off series with a cast of third-string characters.

17:46 / 28.10.03

This isn't consturctive in any way, but I REALLY hate Chuck Austin.

Thank you.

Sorry, but I have this sad need to keep buying that book because I have about 300 issues of it already. It's just something I've done since 1980. It's part of my life at this point.

Am I wrong? Do I and others like me contribute to Austen (and other hacks) staying on the book because we keep the sales stable? Is letting go of this comic part of my evolution as a person? Why can't I let go? I don't see how the comic could get any worse, really. And yet because of work people did about 20 years ago, I'm still buying the comic.

I rationalize it, telling myself I can make mroe money by selling the whole collection someday, but I know I'll never do it. Should I forgive myself? More importantly, is it too much of me to ask that Marvel hire a series of good writers to work on their flagship title? Is the problem with me or them?

Thank you for listening.

Matthew Fluxington

17:52 / 28.10.03

Do I and others like me contribute to Austen (and other hacks) staying on the book because we keep the sales stable? Is letting go of this comic part of my evolution as a person?

In a word: YES.

It's no secret that a lot of the reason why the X-Office can be so sloppy is the fact that they know that there is a certain baseline number of readers who will buy the X-comics no matter what. There is no way for Marvel to know how many readers are just buying the comic out of habit and hate it - a sale is a sale is a sale, and your money is helping to keep Chuck Austen on Uncanny X-Men. If you want to help get a writer fired off the book, you have to stop buying it and do your part to make the sales of the title tank.

Read it in the store, dude.

17:59 / 28.10.03

Alright. I'm going to do this.

Maybe I'll let Marvel know that it was Chuck Austen who put the nail in the coffin.

And on a semi-serious note, maybe I can helps others just like me.

Seriously. Three hundred and thirty one continous issues.

24 years.

Issues #101 - 432. I don't even want to think about the ratio of good money spent to bad money spent in there.

18:53 / 28.10.03

That's my whole life, man.

I'm surprised you have to ask. It's really up to you, but I don't see the point in buying a cultural item that you wholly dislike.

02:57 / 29.10.03

With NXM, I'm gone if it isn't someone who I already admire. Don't follow characters anymore.

Fuck 'em.

13:56 / 29.10.03

makeitbleed: Ditch them and don't look back. You will feel no pain, only freedom. It'll be like Evey taking her blindfold off in the rain after V is done fucking with her head.

This is great news for me as it coincides perfectly with my plan to stop collecting monthly comics. Cerebus is nearly gone. Bone is two issues from completion. Moore is out of comics. Mozza is leaving X-Men. Planetary is ... what, 7 issues from completion. And now it sounds like X-Statix is going to nosedive into the sidewalk too. That leaves what... Thieves & Kings and Castle Waiting. Neither of which come out very much. So I'm basically free. Brilliant.

One thing I feel I have to do in this thread, however, is to stick up for Alan Davis. When he became the writer on Excalibur in the 40's of that title (42-50 and then another dozen or so issues between there and 75, interspersed with the same old diabolical shite from Scott Lobdell), Davis was the best X-writer in comics. He took the horrible mess of make-it-up-as-you-go-along plotlines that Claremont had left the book with, the inconsistent writing of the characters and the basic meaninglessness of Excalibur's existence at all and he wove it into a great story. He revivified all of the characters. He rocked the art. And it was as funny as all hell.

Sure, the work he did with the goddam Kubert Kids in the late '90's was nothing to write home about, but as far as I'm concerned Davis has shown that he *can* write an X-book, and write it damn well to boot.

It's really too bad that he's nowadays wasting himself on retro material like Killraven and so on. If they team him with Claremont on an X-title then I will at least look at it, thoughtfully.

But I still hope it'll be too rubbish for me to have to buy.

20:15 / 29.10.03

During the early 1990s, I was just getting into comics and bought all kinds of X-Men and the like.
Unfortunately, this means that most of my choices were informed by Lobdell/Nicieza and the like. I believe that at one point I may have thought that their writing was above average.

Note that once I came to my senses (or my voice changed, one of those) I realized what revolting crap I was reading and didn't pick up a comic for years.

Don't inflict this crap on the kids of this age. Really, you're not helping anyone. Remember the X-Force/Spider-Man crossover? Back when those comics meant Liefeld and McFarlane, respectively? I think the plot had something to do with the Juggernaut and Black Tom blowing up the World Trade Center. Really.
If you let these people back in, the terrorists have won. For god's sake, think of the children.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

22:29 / 29.10.03

Fabian Nicieza has his moments of crap-a-tude, but he's been pretty above average lately. The Blackburne Covenent was good and his new noir-ish take on Hawkeye is an interesting read so far.

00:09 / 30.10.03

MIB, these guys don't know what they are talking about. I've been a huge fan of the Incredible Hulk since I was in tattered purple diapers. Man, I used to love the Hulk TV show, I even learned how to play the theme music on the piano! I have every issue of the first series from #141 (the 1st appearance of Doc Sampson!) to #474 and all of Volume 2 as well as the b&w magazine series. Sure there have been some low points (I thought the hack work that was Peter David's run would never end!) but, for the most part I'm glad I stuck with it. Bruce Jones work has been so rewarding, especially when the Hulk isn't in the book for months at a time, its Hulk for grown ups just like Stan and Jack envisioned! And now that Mike Deodato is back on the book its like all the time and money I spent on this title have blossomed into an 8000lb. gamma radiated flower with beautiful green and grey petals. Even when the book is at rock bottom I can remember how great it used to be and imagine how great it will be in the future. Comic fandom is a lot like rooting for the RedSox, they may suck for years and years but when they finally win the World Series it will be the sweetest thing ever! The next Dark Phoenix saga might be right around the corner!

Stick with it, man. Excelsior!

13:16 / 01.11.03

You don't have any chains rants to post?

18:38 / 01.11.03

No. I'm pretty serious when it comes to the Hulk.

19:35 / 01.11.03

Not that I wasn't serious about the chains.

00:55 / 02.11.03

I'd say that if the new writer for NXM DOESN'T find a brilliant way to incorporate chains into the overall theme of the title they ain't worth a damn........

17:38 / 07.11.03

I don't care much for the whole x-book thing these days, but I couldn't help being drawn into this whole "mystery writer" rumour about who's replacing Morrison. I just read a guess that makes perfect sense in relation to what Johnston said in his column. It's too unbelievable to be true, but if it is, file it under "axis spinning" for me. I'd be tempted to pick the book up if only to read the enormous trainwreck to come.

And the X-Men were third stringers, too. Alpha Flight has wicked potential. J. Torres should have been made writer. Or me.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

22:41 / 07.11.03

Who? Whooooooo?

11:32 / 08.11.03

Is that the Dave Sim guess, m? I'd be mighty surprised.

Not without precedent, though, given that Claremont parodied him/Cerebus in 'Inferno', with the character S'ym.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:24 / 08.11.03

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

YES!!!

Dave Sim writing the two most powerful female telepaths on Earth. Jean and Emma hole themselves up in the institute, free Cassandra Nova (the perfect Cirin/Serna), and slowly begin taking over the world behind the scenes. Scott and Logan are hurled to the deepest depths of the galaxy and must seek the help of an army of Arakis who they must convince to the defy their leader, the Empress Lilandra (*cough* Astoria *cough*) Beast continues to change forms, becoming first Spawn-Beast, and then Comics-Journal-Beast, and finally an all-encompassing Marvel-Universe-Beast. Sim's run ends with Logan and Scott trapped in St. Patrick's Cathedral with the evil mind-leeching Jean and Emma in a battle to the death, which is stopped by the return of Charles Xavier who has spent the entire storyline playing chess in Bryant Park. Logan is telelported to the dark side of the moon, where the Watcher tells him the secrets of the universe, but Logan is too bored to really pay attention.

ENNNNNNND SCENE!

Oh ho man, would this ever be sweet.

18:44 / 08.11.03

If Dave Sim writes a Marvel book, I'll eat my hat in Macy's window at high noon.

Of course, not so long ago I'd have said the same about Andi Watson, Peter Bagge, or James Sturm, so...

11:27 / 09.11.03

Wouldn't Sim need something resembling sanity restored? I really don't think they'd want someone who's rants sound increasingly like the General in Dr. Strangelove.

E

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

13:08 / 09.11.03

This is Marvel we're talking about. There may be a lack of crazy now that Jemas is gone.

18:06 / 11.11.03

Yeah, but how does 'an end to crazy' mean more Lobdell, Claremont and Liefeld? And Chuck Austen, for that matter?

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